Egelman Park is one of the city's most valuable parks, so it's time to end the current lease and take proposals from new groups to run it this summer, City Council and Mayor Vaughn D. Spencer's administration agreed Monday.

That didn't sit well with Randy Gaston, who has a 25-year lease that runs through 2018.

He and his East Reading Athletic Association have run the Egelman concessions and baseball fields for 20 years.

Contacted after the meeting, Gaston said he can't run the youth baseball program if he doesn't have a field.

Several council members have claimed Gaston makes all the money while the city pays most of the maintenance costs.

They said the lease requires Gaston to produce the operation's financial statements, but he submitted only one sheet one time with little detail.

In his defense, Gaston said his crew raised the funds, including grants, to finance renovations, has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the park over the past two decades, is buying a burglar alarm system.

He said he has donated about 1,000 hours of volunteer time every year.

He said the association, not the city, cuts the grass during the 12-week summer program.

"I'd like to see what they've spent up there," he said.

The lease allows the city to ask for his financial statements, but Gaston said the city asked only once, about three years ago.

And as far as the city's claim that it got a one-page statement with little data, he said: "That's a lie."

The lease allows either party the right to cancel it with 90 days notice before June 1 of each year.

The administration agreed to put Gaston on notice that the lease will not be renewed automatically this year, although he could be among those making proposals.

Council said others that also might present proposals are an unnamed private group and the new Reading Recreation Commission.

Egelman Park came up as council members again complained, as they have for four years, that the city hasn't resolved what they called the incredible inconsistencies in the leases for city-owned land.

"We have to get a handle on this," Councilwoman Marcia Goodman-Hinnershitz said.

Members said some city properties are leased with no formal agreements; liability questions abound; some leases have no end dates; city officials don't know which facilities are leased; and city-owned equipment is disappearing.

"With all the things on our plate right now, it's a little overwhelming to look at all the park leases," said Carole B. Snyder, city managing director.

She suggested the city do the top-priority leases.

"As long as Egelman's Park is at the top of that list, I'm all for it," Council President Francis G. Acosta said.